Home > Catalogue > Venezia Arti > 25 | 2016 > Arthur Danto and the Political Re-Enfranchisement of Art

Venezia Arti | Vol. 25 | December 2016

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Research Article

Arthur Danto and the Political Re-Enfranchisement of Art

Noël Carroll    City University of New York, USA    

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abstract

A recurring theme of Arthur Danto’s philosophy of art is that of the philosophical disenfranchisement of art. This is Danto’s version of the Ancient Quarrel between poetry and philosophy. In terms of cultural politics, philosophers – since Socrates met Ion – have attempted to demote the authority of poets (and, by extension, artists in general). Philosophers have sought to achieve this by means of a number of strategies – from the denial that art can provide knowledge to the idea that art is detached from the practical, including the political, life of the culture at large. Danto’s own ‘end of art’ thesis may be the most recent variation on this motif. However, even if Danto’s philosophy of art history contributes to the philosophical disenfranchisement of art, Danto’s philosophy of art can be interpreted as a way of re-enfranchising art politically.

Published
Dec. 20, 2016
Language
EN

Keywords: Arthur Danto • Philosophical disenfranchisement • Philosophy of art

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-2720/VA-25-16-1

Copyright: © 2016 Noël Carroll. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.